Global Issues
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Venezuela. Alea Jacta!
- Inter Press Service
GENEVA, Feb 04 (IPS) - Idriss Jazairy Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on the Adverse Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures.
The count down towards a tragic outcome in Venezuela has started. All outside powers express what they say is a shared concern for its peace-loving people that has the misfortune of sitting on what is maybe the largest oil reserves in the world. The problem is that geopolitics lead groups of foreign countries to express different, not to say opposed recipes as to how democracy can be restored and happiness pursued in Venezuela and want to make their own views prevail in this divided country.
Divided the country has been indeed for quite some time. Of course circumstances have not been clement, both political and economic, what with institutional breakdown, the collapse in oil prices and the increasingly stiflling unilateral sanctions which have targeted Caracas.
But governance has also been found badly wanting, in a context of increasing violence on all sides. Incidentally, recent debates seem to imply there are three sides to the domestic dispute and forget the fourth, the millions of Chavistas themselves who can only be ignored at the peril of peace.
Fighting Machismo in Latin America: The Formula to Combat Femicides
- Inter Press Service
Peru began the year with 11 femicides in January, despite progress made in laws and statutes and mass demonstrations against gender-based violence. This situation is also seen in other Latin American countries, raising the need to delve deeper into the causes of the phenomenon.
Bullets Against Pots and Pans: The Crackdown on Venezuela's Protests Is Brutal
- Inter Press Service
CARACAS, Feb 01 (IPS) - The protests in Venezuela demanding an end to the presidency of Nicolás Maduro in the last 10 days of January, whose soundtrack was the sound of banging on pots and pans in working-class neighbourhoods, had a high human cost: more than 40 deaths, dozens wounded and about a thousand detainees, including 100 women and 90 children under 18.
Ending Violence Against Women & Girls in the Sahel: Crucial for Sustainable Development
- Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 01 (IPS) - Amina Mohammed is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.
After flying into the city of Bol in the Republic of Chad, over the lush fields and receding lakes, we landed to a rapturous welcome from traditional rulers and local women. Their faces reflected a hope and dignity slipping away under the harsh reality of poverty and insecurity.
Removing Arsenic from Groundwater: We Have the Tools, Let's Use Them
- Inter Press Service
HAMILTON, Canada, Feb 01 (IPS) - Researchers Yina Shan, Praem Mehta, Duminda Perera and Yurissa Varela developed this report at the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, hosted by the Government of Canada and McMaster University
Cost-effective technologies are available to remove arsenic in groundwater. Why then do tens of millions still fall ill to this chronic problem?
High natural levels of arsenic are characteristic of the groundwater supply in many countries, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Mongolia, and the United States.
Nigerians Hear How Irregular Migration 'Is Like Going to Kill Yourself'
- Inter Press Service
BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Feb 01 (IPS) - "Don't assume if you attempt the journey your fortune will change for the better," a woman says over the public address system in the crowded Uselu market in Benin City, the capital of Nigeria's Edo State. "Many embarked on the journey and never made it. Many people are dying in the Sahara Desert."
Making Communities Drought Resilient
- Inter Press Service
GEORGETOWN, Feb 01 (IPS) - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD's) Drought Initiative is in full swing with dozens of countries signing up to plan their drought programme.
Mexican Village Wants to Turn Thermoelectric Plant into Solar Panel Factory
- Inter Press Service
YECAPIXTLA, Mexico, Feb 01 (IPS) - Social organisations in the central Mexican municipality of Yecapixtla managed to halt the construction of a large thermoelectric plant in the town and are now designing a project to convert the installation into a solar panel factory, which would bring the area socioeconomic and environmental dividends.
From Fake News to Enemy of the People: An Anatomy of Trump's Tweets
- Inter Press Service
NEW YORK, Jan 31 (IPS) - Stephanie Sugars is North America Research Assistant at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Since announcing his candidacy in the 2016 presidential elections to the end of his second year in office, U.S. President Donald Trump has sent 1,339 tweets about the media that were critical, insinuating, condemning, or threatening.
Gender Gap Made Worse by Land Degradation
- Inter Press Service
GEORGETOWN, Jan 31 (IPS) - In parts of the world where the gender gap is already wide, land degradation places women and girls at even greater risk.
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